Antennas

When combining antennas (as in the Stacked Antenna program), does TAP add the field or the power from each antenna on each azimuth?

What is the difference between antenna "azimuth" and "elevation" patterns, and "horizontal" and "vertical" patterns"?

How do I enter an antenna’s beamwidth for use in TAP?

Boundaries

When using the .BNA boundary files with TAP I sometimes notice errors in the locations of some of the objects, such as roads. Why is this?

Coordinates

My transmitter site has one set of coordinates for NAD27, another set for NAD83, and different values for UTM coordinates. Which are correct? Why the differences?

Earth Curvature

How is earth curvature correction calculated?

Fresnel Zone

When I plot a terrain profile, what number and ratio should I use for the Fresnel zone?

Intermodulation

How are intermodulation calculations done?

When I run an intermod study, the program produces hundreds of pages of output. Is there a way to focus the output on the problem areas?

Loss Values

What values should I include for external losses, such as body absorption, building losses, etc.?

What loss values should I include in my coverage calculations?

To calculate free-space loss I use the equation 36.6 + 20LogD + 20LogF, where D is the distance in miles and F is the frequency in MHz. I subtract the free-space loss (in dB) from my transmitter ERP (in dBm) to get my receiver input power (in dBm). When I use TAP to compute free space field, then use the Units Conversion program to convert the field value (in dBu) to receiver input power (in dBm) the TAP value is about 4.3dB higher. What’s wrong?

Microwave

How is microwave reliability and outage time computed?

How do I include passive repeater calculations in a microwave link design?

Propagation Models / Coverage

Which propagation model is best for my application?

What is the Bullington propagation model?

What is the Egli propagation model?

What is the Okumura propagation model?

What is the Hata/Davidson propagation model?

What is the Longley-Rice propagation model?

 How do the variability settings affect the Longley-Rice field strength calculations?

What settings should I use for Longley-Rice soil conductivity and permittivity values?

When should I use the Carey propagation model? When should I use Bullington? What about Broadcast and Longley-Rice?

How can I use the Longley-Rice propagation model for specialized calculations, such as the "Longley-Rice Methodology for Evaluating TV Coverage and Interference" in OET Bulletin 69, or the "Individual Location Longley-Rice (ILLR) calculation in FCC 00-185?

Where can I learn more about the theory and implementation of the Longley-rice propagation model.

What is the difference between CDMA and TDMA?

New Propagation Modeling Technology (Article in June 2003 Mission Critical Magazine) by Larry D. Ellis, P.E.

What is TSB-88 and how can TAP be used with this propagation methodology?

Units

What is the difference between dBu, dBm, dBuV, and other units?

How do I determine power density at a location?

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